Prediabetic patients, who lower their blood sugar levels and can achieve remission, can effectively reduce the likelihood of serious heart problems by nearly 60 per cent, according to a study.
The research, published in the journal The Lancet Diabetes & Endocrinology, showed that bringing blood glucose back to normal levels — effectively reversing prediabetes — cuts the risk of death from heart disease or hospital admission for heart failure.
People who had achieved remission from prediabetes had a 58 per cent lower risk of cardiovascular death or hospitalisation from heart failure. This effect persisted decades after normalising glucose levels, suggesting a lasting impact on regulating blood glucose, said researchers from King`s College London, UK.
This finding is especially important in light of recent research showing that lifestyle changes alone — including exercise, weight loss, and dietary improvements — do not lower cardiovascular risk in people with prediabetes.
“The study challenges one of the biggest assumptions in modern preventative medicine. For years, people with prediabetes have been told that losing weight, exercising more, and eating healthier will protect them from heart attacks and early death. While these lifestyle changes are unquestionably valuable, the evidence does not support that they reduce heart attacks or mortality in people with prediabetes,” said lead author Dr. Andreas Birkenfeld, Reader in Diabetes, King`s College London and University Hospital Tuebingen.
“Instead, we show that remission of prediabetes is associated with a clear reduction in fatal cardiac events, heart failure, and all-cause mortality,” Birkenfeld added.
Prediabetes is a condition where blood glucose levels are higher than normal but not yet high enough to be diagnosed with type 2 diabetes.
Previous studies had shown that combined lifestyle interventions, including increased exercise and eating a healthy diet, did not reduce cardiovascular disease. This suggests that delaying diabetes onset alone does not guarantee cardiovascular protection unless important metabolic changes occur.
“The study findings mean that prediabetes remission could establish itself — alongside lowering blood pressure, cutting cholesterol, and stopping smoking — as a fourth major primary prevention tool that truly prevents heart attacks and deaths,” Birkenfeld said.
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